Am I missing something on D/IPAs?

Oh man I'm sorry if I got you excited lol. I wish I could send you some but the only reason I have had them is they are available in Philly on occasion and every time I see them I go out right away and have a pour or 2.

Unfortunately I don't think Shaun allows the Philly bars to do growlers or I would ship you one next time they are in tap around town.

I have yet to have any FFF offerings but Z Dust so I cant comment on Dreadnaught and the like.

 

To most of us it tastes better, really that simple, we enjoy those flavors more. Apparently you dont like those flavors as much as some of us. I dont really enjoy Sour or Wild Ales, I've had a few, I can tell you which ones I liked better than others but its not a style that I enjoy as many members of this site.

 

I can tell you that It took me quite some time to develop my palate with IPAs. I think I tried most of the highly rated ones and just couldn't understand why people loved them so much. Then one night I opened a Racer 5 and wham, it all changed. I literally back tracked and revisited every IPA I had tried and the rest is history. By far my favorite style. Enjoy what you like but revisit a good IPA now and then. It may click one day and surprise you...

 

Belgians do the same for me. Never truly loved one. I have figured out I don't love the lack of carbonation and the belgian yeast really dominates. IPAs and DIPA's I love!

 

It was Racer 5 for me too. Then I specifically sought out Pliny, and I've never looked backed.

 

Try some St. Bernardus brews for very well carbonated belgians.

 

Same here, and BA brews. The yeast in the belgians and the bourbon in the BA's are usually just too dominant for my palate. I'll definitely continue to try though. I'm waiting for that one brew to hit me and leave me head over heels!

 

Bernadaus 12 probably my favorite I have had and maybe that is why. Can't get in New Hampshire or I would try more.

 

Have you had Firestone BA stuff? They do it, so well.

 

As an IPA lover and someone who couldn't tell a good stout from a shitty one, I can understand that someone doesn't "get" DIPAs since I don't "get" stouts. That's why there's a craft beer movement in the first place. If there wasn't different craft beer styles and everybody liked the same thing, we'd all be drinking BMC. Ugh.

 

I used to be that way...and would tell the wife to pick up "some IPA" while at the store. Didn't matter what, really...
However after several years of drinking them, it's amazing what tremendous differences I now taste. I'm much more of a piney, "typical" American west coast IPA drinker. I used to enjoy Harpoon...now it tastes like i'm drinking a banana. Stone Ruination used to taste like the red guts of a pecan...now I drink it as a session beer.

 

It took me awhile to appreciate pretty much any beer over 50 IBUs but now I love DIPAs. What I don't like (so far) is high alcohol BA beers. Yet somehow I still bought BCBS. D'Oh

 

You could be drinking these beers at subpar freshness. That is usually what hinders most people from liking the style.

 

I think in a blind taste test IPAs may be one of the easier styles to tell apart vs. gueze and RIS. There is no way a Heady, ZD, Pliny, and Union Jack could be confused with one another.

 

RIS is sweeter but you like that? A fresh pliny will be supremely bitter and bursting with hop flavor. Drink a Henry Weinhards IPA after that and it will taste like slightly buttery grains and minerals. I would say get a fresh beer made with citra hops and you should be able to get the picture of why a buttload of hops can work in a beer. And there are soooo many different ways to make an ipa too. I would say you probably are having freshness issues.

 

I think part of your "problem" is because you don't know what kind of hops you are drinking. And the breweries dont always make it easy to find out which hops they use in any particular beer. If you do a little research you can probably find a few different IPA's to compare against each other: Maybe do a tasting with all different hops one time, then another time try a tasting with all the same/similar hops and see what you like/dislike about particular breweries' IPA's, and different hops and combinations of hops. Another key is to drink a LOT of IPA's so you will start to pick up on subtle differences. The only problem with these suggestions is that you are going to really have to WANT to do this, and if you aren't really into IPA's then I dont know if you will consider it to be worth the time/effort/money. Just drinking a random IPA every once in a while will probably do much of anything to change your current state.

 

Homebrewing has helped my appreciation of beer as well as my palate. When you know what's in it, it's easier to try and find those tastes/smells in the beer.

 

Yup, Parabola, Abacus, and DDBA. My palate refuses to let me get passed the bourbon.

I plan on buying 2 16th, so if i don't like it fresh, i'll have the other 1 a year or so from now and see if i like it aged. I regret not doing this with the other ones.


As for the subject of this thread, i think cmmcdunn is spot on. Homebrewing helps out alot when trying to find different hop flavor/the differences in IPA's. Even if you don't homebrew i recommend ordering Northern Brewings free catalog. It has like, 3 pages of all the different hops with a description of their aroma and flavor.

 

http://therulingglass.blogspot.ca/p/a-drinkers-guide-to-hops-archive.html

This link is helpful, also Mikeller put out a single hop series a while back that helped me understand hop profile differences. The best thing to do is brew your own though. The first time I used Citra I opened the bag and took a big sniff.. holy shit was that a life changing experience. Since then I have been sampling as many different hops as possible.